I have friends and family who want to keep up with me and in touch, so I created this blog as a way for me to tell them all the news and stories they want to hear, and on their own time. I also hope to give others an understanding of what it means to serve in the IDF and the service those who do serve are doing.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Simchat Torah and a Jewish Nation

In the states Simchat Torah and Shmeni Atzeret are two seperate and distict days, but here they are one and it is a bit weird. So on the first (and ONLY) night of chag we take out the Torah's and begin to dance all 7 hakafot. It was a really nice experience in the kibbutz, and the younger people especially get real into the dancing and singing. Every time the Gabi tries to get up and start a new Hakafah, the youth would pick up a new song and keep on going, with out fail each time. The night of the dancing did not go on too lang and we eat by a reasonable hour.

The next morning we started services a bit early, and we were done with all the teffilot (prayers) by 1030 Everyone then went back to their houses and had kiddush there. People eat a light brunch as well, and then by 1130 people come back to the shul and the hakofot begin. These hakafor are even more lively than the night before. The Kibbutz puts out a table of "schnapps" and people really get into the dancing. But there was one song i had never heard before which really struck me.

"עם מנצח לא לפחד מי דרך ארוקה"

A victorious nation is not afraid of the long path.

This really struck me because I had never heard this song before, and even more I realized this is a song unique to the Israeli experience. In America Jews have no conception of what it means to be a nation, a Jewish nation. they may know what it means to be a minority group, even a power player in the states decisions, but they have never and never will know what it means to be the nation as a whole, to be not just an actor in the decision, but also the one making decisions.

But even further this song embodies even more of the Israeli spirit which many American Jews lack. Many American Jews enjoy their lives, they might know or say Israel is great and their homeland but it is too much of a bother for them to do the right thing. Its easy to sit in their large house, in a quite suburb, and send a yearly check to the JNF. So they do because they don't want to have to get a smaller house, in a city where every cafe has a security guard, where their children will have to go to the army, and they are part of all the decisions of the nation. But its sad because these people can not see past their own selves, they cannot see the long path. It may be a harder path, a long path but it is also the one which will ensure your grand kids are Jewish; it is the one which ensures the rest of your nation a safe haven for ever. So yes this song is it its entirety Israeli and yes every Jew in America is missing out on it.

Judaism does not believe in taking the easier path in life. Torah is meant to be worked for and is meant to be a lifelong toil, not an easy fruit to be pulled of a tree. It is sad the American Jew has let this idea fade away and be lost. While this may not apply to all Jews it applies to many, and if it does not apply to you maybe it will jar you enough to move someone else to action as well.